The Dark Lord, The Witch and The Time-Portal

XVI - The future in your hands

Thursday, September 10, 1942

Holly Portier and Tom Riddle were just friends now, and they remained in this state on the following days. Although it was odd for her to be in this sort of relationship with a younger version of her archenemy, at the same time, it felt remarkably natural and easy to be near him. It scared her how everything could be different when a blank slate was somehow presented, where she had no real motives to hate this boy of fifteen.

Tom sat down by her side in most classes, but they spent moments after classes as well, studying in the library or in the Common Room. Holly even took a seat with Tom's evil council one evening —she was sure that Avery and Lestrange barely tolerated her, but she ended up being on good terms with Ivan Dolohov, no doubt thanks to Quidditch!

Walburga didn't seem at ease when Holly was near the boys, and constantly looked in their direction to check if everything was okay. Dolohov always tensed whenever he noticed her watchful glances.

Tom and Holly clearly enjoyed each other's company, and the best of all was the fact that it wasn't suffocating at all. Tom often gave her space to be around her own friends or even alone, and she was sure that he liked to have some time by himself as well.

However, she was aware that Tom had made his intentions clear from the beginning. He respected her decision to just be friends, but he wanted more than that; he wanted to kiss her and perhaps become her boyfriend. Part of her wanted the same as him, but it still felt wrong. Her conscience often reminded her that it was too good to be true and that he was just a manipulative liar. It was dangerous to get involved with him because he could still turn into Voldemort.

Sometimes a brush of hands happened accidentally when they were just walking together, and Tom got a little flirty whenever they were alone. Though he maintained a respectable distance, as if there were an invisible barrier between them. The last time a boy made her heart flutter this way, she was only twelve, and he was a distant memory from the past —the evil version of this current Tom, or at least she hoped.

She liked Cedric; he was handsome and gentle, but he never provoked these intense emotions in her. And she felt confused most of all. Tom Riddle distracted her from her true objective, and she was being eaten alive by the memories of the kisses they shared. Tom was being good to her, but they only met each other a few days ago, and she couldn't let him be a distraction from her true objectives. She missed Hermione, Ron, and all her other friends that she lost coming back to the past. Most people she knew weren't even born yet, and Holly had to make sure that they would have a bright and happy future as well.

Myrtle convinced Holly into giving another chance to the Divination classes. The two girls planned on pairing up together, but Professor Vablatsky had other ideas in mind. The old witch was the one who sorted out the pairs of students who would predict each other's fortunes, using whichever methods they preferred.

Holly ended up pairing with no one other than Tom Riddle himself.

They sat facing each other, and he stared at her with a haughty smirk plastered on his handsome face. The prospect of Tom Riddle reading her fortune made her very nervous, not because she thought he could discover any secrets about her but due to the fact that Voldemort was superstitious enough to believe in a prophecy and try to kill a baby. She was already regretting attending the Divination class once again.